BPL Group founder T.P. Gopalan Nambiar died on Thursday, family sources said. Nambiar, 94, was not keeping well for quite some time and passed away in the morning, they said.

Popularly known as TPG, he is the father-in-law of BJP leader and former Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

Mourning his demise, former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa said on ‘X’, “Saddened by the passing of TPG Nambiar, founder of the iconic BPL brand, who has been a close acquaintance for a long time. Nambiar’s enormous contribution and legacy will always be remembered. My heartfelt condolences to his loved ones.”

Nambiar had set up the British Physical Laboratories India as a joint venture with a British company in Kerala in 1963 to manufacture precision devices for defence forces.

The company later expanded its medical devices, and in the 1980s, it diversified into televisions, video cassette recorders, and later to refrigerators and other consumer electrical and electronic devices.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and leader of the opposition in the state assembly V.D. Satheesan on Thursday condoled the demise Nambiar.”

He was a prominent figure in the Indian business world as the founder of BPL, which played a pivotal role in advancing the telecommunications industry in India,” the chief minister said.